John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the role played by Tom Kitt and Michael Kennedy at the outset of this campaign. I recall the non-partisan way in which they set up a committee to hold hearings and give those who were involved in the Magdalen laundries an opportunity to put their experiences on record. I hope the report and this debate send a signal to others who believe their rights were trampled on by the State. There are many such individuals. The Minister of State mentioned Bethany homes but two workhouses, in Dublin and Wexford, respectively, were not mentioned in the report. It is astonishing they were not included. There was cross-party political involvement in allowing this issue to be discussed initially and facilitating the women in coming forward and sharing their experiences and difficulties. I commend Members across all parties on the work undertaken. I also commend former Senator McAleese on brining together the stories and setting out the extent to which the State neglected its responsibility to those who were in these workhouses. It did nothing to stop the violation of human rights.

The religious orders were also complicit and they, along with the State, should offer a full apology. I regret that the Taoiseach did not take the opportunity of the publication of the report to make such an apology. Everybody who followed the campaign was aware that the outcome could only have been what former Senator McAleese described. The apology should have been ready and accompanied by a commitment to introduce a redress scheme. We also cannot forget the families of the women whose rights were violated in the various workhouses.

I spoke with one women who only in the past several days came forward to state that she was cared for in three different foster homes before being taken without notice to an institution in Wexford. She escaped from the institution on several occasions because she endured a life of misery in it. She was not even recognised as a human being. She told me how they washed the terrazzo floors in these institutions. One of the girls who joined her was forced to do this work even though she only had one hand. Another girl who was fully able took the brunt of the tasks assigned to them.

One of the things she said to me was that as she developed friendships with other girls in that location, she and they were punished by being sent to the "hairy" room to have their hair hacked off so that they were then presented to the others in a way that embarrassed them. It is a shame that the State behaved like that. We all need to apologise to all of these families and to all of the women still alive. We need to encourage the Taoiseach and the State to be fulsome in their apology. They must also acknowledge that more needs to be done and that a redress scheme needs, without any great debate, to be put in place to recognise the work these women did while they were in State care, to recognise the abuse they received and the fact their rights were trampled on by the State.

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